FLORIDA — Attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and more than a dozen other defendants charged in a Florida prostitution sting filed a motion to stop the public release of surveillance videos and other evidence taken by police.
Attorneys filed the motion Wednesday in Palm Beach County court. The State of Florida does not agree with the request, according to the filing.
In the motion, the attorneys asked the court to grant a protective order to safeguard the confidentiality of the materials seized from the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, and “in particular the videos, until further order of the court.”
CNN has reached out to Kraft’s attorney but has not heard back.
Source: Kraft will not accept a plea deal
The information comes the same day a source familiar with the case told CNN that Kraft will not accept a plea deal offered by state prosecutors in the case.
Prosecutors have offered to drop misdemeanor charges against Kraft and 24 other men in exchange for fines, community service and an admission they would be found guilty should the case go to trial, according to Mike Edmonson, spokesman for the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office.
Edmondson described the offer as standard for first-time offenders. He said that none of the offers had been accepted as of Wednesday morning.
More than 100 people linked to suspicious spas
The 77-year-old Kraft was among more than 100 people linked last month to several central Florida day spas and massage parlors suspected of being used for prostitution and targeted by law enforcement during a monthslong investigation.
Police said Kraft twice visited the Orchids of Asia Day Spa. Video footage showed him receiving “paid acts” in a room at the spa and surveillance video shows him being driven to the spa, police Chief Daniel Kerr said last month.
Kraft, who has denied through a spokesman that he committed a crime, has been charged with two counts of solicitation. “We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity,” his spokesman said.
The charges are second-degree misdemeanors and generally carry no more than a 60-day sentence in county jail, according to Edmondson.
Kraft is to be arraigned on March 28.
